Parents slash household budgets to afford back-to-school costs

By Lebone Rodah Mosima and Charmaine Ndlela

From R900 stationery lists to R4,500 registration fees, parents say the price of sending children back to school is spiralling.

The 2026 academic year officially starts in 24 hours, and families across South Africa are still cutting back, slashing essentials, making plans to skip holidays, and turning to loans to cover basic schooling requirements.

The country’s official unemployment rate was 31.9% in the third quarter of 2025, meaning many families entered January with limited or unstable income.

At the same time, consumer inflation was 3.5% year-on-year in November 2025, with food and non-alcoholic beverages rising 4.4%, keeping basic shopping baskets elevated for many homes.

January also comes with a predictable cash-flow squeeze, as many salaried workers face a longer gap between December and January paydays.

Standard Bank has described this as a “pay gap” dynamic that forces people to stretch earlier December salaries